Studies have found that South African men spend significantly more time surfing the Net, buying online and banking online than women do.
A new South African study by Webchek has echoed trends in the US, where it has also been found that women spend less time using the Internet than men do.
Webchek`s latest annual Project SA Web User study indicates that 49% of South African Internet users are women. Despite the fact that nearly half the users are women, women spend considerably less time online than men do.
The study found that on average, women tend to access the Web less often than men do, with women going online 14.6 times a month, compared with the men`s average of 17.3 times a month. Some 39% of men and 34% of women access the Web every day at home. Both men and women access the Web every day at work more than they do at home, with 61% of men and 44% of women accessing the Internet every day at work.
Once they are online, men spend considerably more time surfing the Net than women do. The study found that in an average week, men spend six hours online at home and 8.1 hours online at work. In contrast, women spend an average of 3.8 hours online at home and 5.4 hours online at work during one week. Women also access significantly fewer Web sites than men do - averaging 10.8 per month, compared with men`s 15.6 per month.
Women are also less inclined to carry out transactions online, with significantly more men than women shopping and banking online. While 30% of men have shopped online, only 22% of women have. Among those who have shopped online, 14% of women and 2% of men said their most recent purchase was groceries. Some 16% of men and only 2% of women said their most recent online purchase was software. On average, men have spent twice as much online as women have.
Half of the men and 43% of the women surveyed bank online, tending to carry out similar banking transactions. Of the people who do not currently bank online, 38% of the women and 29% of the men said they would never bank online.
Webchek says the reasons for the difference between male and female Internet usage are probably similar to those given for similar findings in the US. In the US, women said they had less time available for surfing the Net because they tend to do more errands than men in their spare time, such as cooking, cleaning and looking after children.
According to Webchek, the disparity in male-female Internet usage at work was probably because women spend their spare time at work socialising, or getting their work done so that they can leave the office on time and run errands.
In contrast, said Webchek, men seemed to stay at the office after hours to surf the Internet a little longer.
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